EmpressOfCanada

Aeroplan was one of the three finalists at the 2012 Freddie Awards.

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/p...ddies/681792/1

dave0823

ELIZABETH, N.J. � American Airlines' AAdvantage frequent-flier program took home more awards than any other carrier at the 2012 Freddie Awards Thursday evening.

Included in American's four-Freddie award tally was the coveted "Program of the Year" title for airlines in the Americas. That ended a two-year run by the Air Canada-affiliated Aeroplan program, which did not win a single Freddie after winning five total awards in 2011 and three in 2010. (Scroll to the bottom a for complete list of this year's winners)

The three other finalists for "Program of the Year" in the Americas were Air Canada's Aeroplan, Delta's SkyMiles and Southwest's Rapid Rewards.

PointWeasel

I'm confused. Aeroplan did not manage to win a single award in this year's awards, where does the OP get the idea they were a finalist?

This lack of awards comes as no surprise to me whatsoever. There are way too many things that need to be addressed and Rupert is too focused on expanding the empire further afield - he could care less.

neuron

In each category, there were four finalists announced at the Freddies (top Value amongst vote-getters). They were eliminated on the screen until only the Winner remained.

AC finished second in voting to AA in the Program of the Year - Americas; Best Promotion for Earning (Take off with up to 25000 Bonus Miles with Rapidair); Best Customer Service; and, Best Elite Program

wwtsang

from the article: "The three other finalists for "Program of the Year" in the Americas were Air Canada's Aeroplan, Delta's SkyMiles and Southwest's Rapid Rewards."

YEGTigger

So, AC/AE finishes second to a program from an airline in creditor protection? Maybe a well run FF program isn't a good thing.

arcticbull

I think you're looking at it backwards. An airline that is in bankruptcy has every interest in retaining it's fliers, and it does so with it's FF program. This is a lesson AC is about to learn the hard way as the airline is about to go belly up AND it has a terrible program :P

YEGTigger

Fair enough. I'm trying to figure out what criteria they would use when picking a winner. AE is okay by me but I only give AC 15k miles a year. WS gets the rest. Just not enough there to give AC everything.

FlyerTalker683455

I voted and didnt' much care what I voted for, AS LONG AS it was NOT Aeroplan...there are too many categories anyway. But I am glad Aeroplan lost all their Freddies. Off to the swamp ...

hjohnson

This would be more interesting if Aeroplan was a frequent flyer program, not a frequent toaster program...

SFO777

AA hasn't made any changes to its FF program since the BK filing. What AA has not done over the past few years is devalue the program with "enhancements".
This one was a no brainer. AAdvantage is far and away the best FF program especially for top tier elites.

arcticbull

My reasoning was that they hadn't "enhanced" their FF program due to the bankruptcy. They knew it was coming, and of course they weren't going to do anything after it got there. I think that once they exit creditor protection they will take an axe to their chart. But I think they're safe for a while.

SFO777

Your opinion, but don't assume AA management are as stupid as AC management.

arcticbull

So we can definitely agree that AC management is in a league of their own

But don't forget that devaluations happen in all programs, every couple of years. It's a natural cycle. The number of miles to go from A-B goes up, and so does the cost of the award ticket.

In the last few months, AAdvantage started assessing fuel surcharges on all flights from North America into London. Overnight, it went from ~$200 in taxes and fees to over ~$1000. These fees are actually being assessed on BA flights as well as AA flights, even though it was ostensibly done for BA.

The last major chart devaluation I can tell was in October 2008, when they increased the number of miles required by around 10% in general. Just because they're not AC doesn't mean that chart's don't change! It's been too long since the last devaluation, which makes me think that one's coming. But I'm happy to be wrong!

SFO777

I believe it's not so much AA as UK government fees.
On the other end of the spectrum, AA charged me a grand total of $2.50 in fees on my recent SFO-HKG CX First flight.